Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the union territory of India is made up of two island groupings (Andaman Island and Nicobar Island) and is located at the southern tip of the Bay of Bengal. The regional capital is Port Blair, which is located on South Andaman Island. They also have a lot of forest cover. Summers and winters in this region have similar average temperatures. This group of islands has a large variety of flora and fauna. So far, the islands have a diverse range of vegetation and forest creatures. This article will explain to you about Andaman and Nicobar Islands which will be helpful in preparing the Environment Syllabus for the UPSC Civil Service exam.

Location of Andaman and Nicobar Islands

Andaman Island

• The Andaman Islands are made up of around 300 islands.
• The principal islands, collectively known as Great Andaman, are Landfall Island, the Sentinel Islands, Ritchie's Archipelago, and Rutland Island.
• The Ten Degree Channel, which is roughly 90 miles (145 kilometers) wide, separates Little Andaman from the Nicobar Islands in the south.
• Mostly damp deciduous forests cover the Middle Andamans. The moist evergreen variety dominates in the North Andamans, with an abundance of woody climbers.
• The Andaman Islands' native vegetation is tropical forest with mangroves along the coast.
• The rainforests are comparable to those on Burma's west coast in terms of composition.

Nicobar Island

• The Nicobar Islands are made up of 19 islands. Car Nicobar is located in the north, Camorta, Katchall, and Nancowry are located in the middle, and Great Nicobar is located in the south.
• The westernmost extremity of Sumatra, Indonesia, is about 90 miles southwest of Great Nicobar.
• The Nicobar Islands are part of a large island arc formed by the Indo-Australian Plate colliding with Eurasia.
• The collision raised the Himalayas and most of Indonesia's islands, forming a broad arc of highlands and islands that includes Burma's Arakan Yoma range, the Andaman and Nicobar islands, and the islands off Sumatra's west coast, such as the Banyak and Mentawai Islands.
• The Nicobar Islands' vegetation is traditionally split into two types: coastal mangrove forests and interior tropical and subtropical wet broadleaf forests, both of which are evergreen and deciduous.
• Inland meadows may also be found on numerous islands, albeit these are likely to have developed from human intervention.

Andaman and Nicobar Islands - Relief and Drainage

• The Andaman Islands' terrain is rugged, with hills enclosing slender longitudinal valleys.
• Only a few valleys, like the Betapur on the Middle Andaman and the Diglipur on the North Andaman, have flat land. Few rivers are perennial.
• The islands' coral-fringed shores are steeply indented, creating sheltered harbors and tidal creeks.
• Compared to the Andamans, the Nicobar Islands' terrain is more varied.
• The flat coral surfaces and offshore coral formations on several of the Nicobar Islands, such as Car Nicobar, make it difficult for most ships to anchor.
• Some islands, like Great Nicobar, are steep and have a lot of swift-moving streams.
• The only island in the region having a sizable volume of fresh surface water is Great Nicobar.

Andaman and Nicobar Islands - Climate

• Despite being tropical, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands' climate is mitigated by sea breezes.
• Every day of the year, temperatures normally increase from the low 70s F (approximately 23 °C) to the mid-80s F (about 30 °C).
• The southwest monsoon, which blows from May through September, and the tropical cyclones that follow in October and November bring about 120 inches (3,000 mm) of rain to the territory each year.
• Great Nicobar gets a lot more rain than the other islands in the Nicobars.
• A reporting station was in operation at Port Blair as early as 1868, and the Andaman Islands have long provided meteorological information for ships in the Bay of Bengal.

Andaman and Nicobar Islands - Population

• Hundreds of islands make up the Andaman and Nicobar Islands area, although only a few are inhabited.
• Only 12 of the Nicobar Islands are populated, while over two dozen of the Andaman Islands have human settlements.
• Immigrants from South Asia and their descendants make up the great bulk of the Andamans' population.
• The majority of people speak Hindi or Bengali, but Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam are also widely spoken.
• The Andamanese, the indigenous people of the Andaman Islands, used to be tiny, isolated communities that spoke several varieties of the Andamanese language.
• The Nicobarese (including the related Shompen) remained to make up the bulk of the Nicobars' population in the early twenty-first century.
• They are believed to be descended from the Malays of insular and peninsular Southeast Asia, as well as the Mon (also known as the Talaing) of Myanmar.

Andaman and Nicobar Islands - Floral Diversity

• Tropical rain forests call these places home. The dominant species are giant Dipterocarpus, Terminalia, and Lagerstroemia.
• Mangroves can also be found along the coast.
• The tropical rainforest canopy of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands is made up of components from Indian, Myanmar, Malaysian, and unique floral strains.
• Epiphytic vegetation, chiefly ferns, and orchids thrive in the South Andaman woods.
• The Middle Andamans are largely covered with humid deciduous woods.
• The moist evergreen variety dominates in the North Andamans, with an abundance of woody climbers.
• The North Nicobar Islands have no evergreen woods, but evergreen forests constitute the dominating vegetation in the Nicobar group's center and southern islands.

Andaman and Nicobar Islands - Faunal Diversity

• The Narcondam hornbill, Nicobar megapode (a ground-nesting bird), Nicobar treeshrew (a tiny mole-like mammal), Long-tailed Nicobar monkey, and the Andaman day gecko are all endemic faunal species found solely on the A&N Islands and nowhere else.
• The IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List of Threatened Species classifies the Dugong (sea cow) and the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin as Vulnerable among the marine fauna present on the islands.
• The marine faunal variety of the islands' environment, which includes coral reefs and their accompanying fauna, is another distinguishing trait.
• The island ecology has around 500 species of scleractinian corals (hard or stony corals) that are protected under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972.
• Among the 46 terrestrial mammalian species discovered, three have been designated as Critically Endangered: the Andaman shrew (Crocidura andamanensis), Jenkin's shrew (Crocidura jenkinsi), and Nicobar shrew (Crocidura nicobarensis).
• Endemism is quite high among birds, with 36 of 344 species found only on the islands.
• Under the Wildlife Protection Act, many of these bird species are listed on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (WPA).

Vulnerable Dugong

Conclusion

According to a publication by the Zoological Survey of India, the islands, which account for only 0.25% of the country's geographical area, are home to 11,009 species. Because of the abundance of species in such a small area, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands are one of India's richest ecosystems and biodiversity hotspots. Some species in the A&N Islands are restricted to a very small area, making them more vulnerable to any anthropogenic threat.